Notion
Notion is like a collaborative workspace that aims to be a versatile multipurpose tool for content organization. Whether you need an app for tasks, a notepad, a calendar, or a board like Trello, Notion can do it all within a single application. What's even more interesting is its collaborative feature, which means you can work with others in real-time on these "documents".
It is a product of a company located in Silicon Valley. According to its LinkedIn profile... Wait, let me check quickly... they have nearly 150 employees and are valued at $2 billion. Clearly, this is a solid company, not some fly-by-night startup.
To start using this fantastic tool, you must first take a deep breath, exhale slowly, and relax because you'll need to forget about traditional collaboration tools. Everything a work team needs to organize amongst themselves is found here, or at least the essentials.
Every file in Notion is like a continuously editable webpage, complete with a title, a header image, and an associated icon. The file's title is its name, and you start with a blank document to which you can add blocks.
This block system consists of visual content pieces. There are text blocks, title blocks, image blocks, link blocks, among others. These blocks can be moved vertically within the document or horizontally using columns. So far, it doesn't seem particularly unique, right? But its simplicity is what makes it so versatile.
Since all pages maintain the same structure, there's a visually pleasing order. Working with Notion isn't tiresome at all. It can gather a significant amount of information in a single space.
For instance, if a company continually shares information via Word documents sent by email, that's not efficient. If, on the other hand, they use Office Online or Google Docs and have shared documents for online editing, I'd rate them a 7 out of 10. It's effective but not efficient. Such document formats are useful when needing to print, considering their typical letter-sized layout. However, if the information isn't meant to be printed, using such a format isn't ideal. Instead, companies can utilize wikis, repositories with linked information, somewhat like Wikipedia but solely for company matters.
Imagine a webpage with company project information that anyone with permissions can edit, visible only to company employees and regularly updated. If a company needs that, then they need a wiki, and with Notion's simple components, they can achieve it.
But Notion's blocks aren't limited to just text and images. There's a block that's a spreadsheet, a mini Excel with columns and rows allowing for simple record-keeping. I personally have one for my fixed expenses, annual and monthly memberships. It helps me track payments, know when to pay, and even track trial expiration dates to avoid overpaying.
Additionally, there's a database block, which acts like sub-documents of the current document but shares common attributes. Each document has attributes, such as dates, tags, and names, and you can add as many as needed. This feature allows for searching, filtering, or sorting these sub-files in views.
Since not everyone is inherently creative, Notion has a section of predefined templates. These cater to various uses, such as design, education, sales, and marketing. It's worth checking out. On Twitter, I've seen incredible designs that the community shares. The possibilities are endless.